Thursday 17 April 2014

Frantic

sunny lane

It's hot today, really pleasantly hot and I've been bumbling around discovering things that have survived the winter like the remaining 12 lavender plantlets from a much neglected bargain batch I bought from Thompson and Morgan last year and trying to make them happier.  There is endless work to attend to and as usual it's going to be a race between my good intentions and my endemic lethargy as to how much is completed in a timely fashion.

Having looked through the quantities of seeds saved and the length of time some of them have been stored I've decided I have to grow out at least sample portions of everything, just to check on viability. This means I'll be growing (fingers crossed) something like 15 varieties of beans and peas this year. Quite where these will be placed is not something I can allow myself to worry about just now but I'm anticipating some creative planting when the time comes.

Peas:
Carlin
Irish Preans
Raisin Capucijiner (these are new this year from HSL)
Unidentified Pea - might be Beltony Blue but I'm not at all sure!
Purple podded

Dwarf beans:
Royal Red
Starley Road Red
Ice Crystal Wax
Orca (or Yin Yang)

Short climbing beans:
Mayflower
Striped Bunch half runner

Tall climbing beans:
Purple Giant
Carters Polish
Riana's bean from the south of France (still unidentified)
White Emergo (runner bean)

What I won't be growing is the Salmon flowered pea I got in a swap with with Robert Brenchley as these seem to have fallen in the same black hole as my bundle of seeds from Higgledy. This is quite a disappointment but I've looked everywhere now and can only imagine they've been thrown away by accident.

As well as the beans I've started various other seeds; Monarda didyma, sweet peas,  achocha, some Prescott Fond Blanc melon (a bit early but another viability check on saved stock) , some Cornue Andes tomatoes, Trifetti pepper and some more Alberto Locoto to replace the ones lost over winter.

Plenty more to come with squash, marigolds and cucumbers all waiting a moment to get started, but more on those later.

By the way, be sure to pop back on the 22nd when I'll be hosting Emma Cooper on her virtual book tour. 


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